PACE committee meeting discusses issue on Azerbaijani non-material heritage

Tbilisi. 25 September. REPORT.AZ/ The meeting of the Committee on Culture, Science, Education and Media of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) held in Tbilisi touched upon the Armenian occupation policy against Azerbaijan, Rafael Huseynov, chairman of the Committee on Cultural Issues of the Azerbaijani Parliament, member of the Permanent Delegation of Azerbaijan to the PACE, said speaking to reporters.

Georgian Bureau of Report News Agency informs that, according to him, during the discussions on the topic "Protection and strengthening of the immaterial cultural heritage of Europe" he spoke about the impact of the Armenian occupational policy on the cultural realities, in particular the immaterial cultural heritage: "Armenia invaded Azerbaijani cultural environment in the Goycha before the occupation of Azerbaijani territories. Since the early 1990s, nearly 700,000 people have been forced to flee Nagorno-Karabakh and surrounding five Azeri regions by aggressive Armenia and their supportive forces and turned into internally displaced persons in their homeland. When people are separated from their environment for many years, their unique traditions, national and cultural values, and unique heritage are gradually eroded, dissipated, forgotten, and destroyed. This means that the aggressors commit a crime against humanity. "

Huseynov also said that he urged both the Council of Europe and UNESCO  to protect immaterial heritage more studiously and to prevent complications aimed at undermining and destroying this non-material heritage.

He also touched upon Azerbaijan's cooperation with UNESCO: "Azerbaijan has 11 officially registered  patterns of non-material heritage in UNESCO. Another few samples of non-material heritage are in the process of registration. "